Players from South Asian nations will not be treated as the overseas booter as will get local status for the upcoming 2025–26 season, as the Professional League Management Committee (PLMC) of Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) decided.
The BFF, in an emergency meeting of their executive body approved the decision of the PLMC yesterday.
“If any clubs want to field players from SAARC countries, they will be considered as local players, and we will decide about the quota after discussing the matter with the clubs,” BFF senior vice president and the chairman of PLMC Imrul Hasan told reporters after the meeting at the BFF House.
PLMC also banned the members of the BFF executive committee, along with those from its standing and ad hoc committees, from being present in club dugouts.
The players’ registration window for the new season will run from June 1 to August 14, when season 2025-2026 expecting to kick off on September 12 through a one-off Challenge Cup match.
Meanwhile, the competition committee of the BFF confirmed five competitions for the season - Challenge Cup, Federation Cup, Independence Cup, Super Cup, and Bangladesh Premier League.
In previous season, clubs were allowed to register six foreign players, of whom four were eligible to play. This time each club enable to sign five foreign players and only three can feature in any particular match. Clubs will be allowed to make field in-game foreign player substitutions.
The BFF senior vice president also said, “Other nations of South Asia, including India, are probably also going to implement this idea as per the suggestions of the South Asian Football Federation.”
Replying to a query if the new policy would reduce the opportunities for local players, Imrul Hasan said, “We want to see it in an another and a more positive way that Bangladeshi footballers will also have the opportunity to play in leagues of the SAARc countries beyond Bangladesh.”
